


Refuge

by sixsclassic



Category: Six - Marlow/Moss
Genre: Adoption, Alternate Universe - Foster Family, Foster Care, Foster Siblings, Loss of Control, Loss of Parent(s), Multi, Muteness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-31
Updated: 2020-05-21
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:47:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 9,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23418481
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sixsclassic/pseuds/sixsclassic
Summary: Cathy finds herself in a new place, finding refuge in her new foster siblings.
Comments: 9
Kudos: 102





	1. Chapter 1

Home. The place where one lives permanently, especially as a member of a family or household. It’s quite ironic how those words can have such little meaning to so many. Especially Catherine Parr, well Cathy, Catherine was her grandmother’s name and she grew up with the nickname so that her eldery grandmother wouldn’t get confused. Well it was eight years of that and she’s grown so used to it, her friends at school always referred to her as Cathy through grade school. Her life was okay as far as she was concerned, it was perfect. She had a loving mom and dad, and loved being an only child as they put so much focus into her life. Up until Catherine’s father passed away when she was nine, it was horrible. She’d lost her grandmother the year before, her favorite person passing away in her sleep suddenly and she couldn’t handle that her father was gone too. He’d had a heart attack at work and couldn’t be saved, no one saw it coming, it’d been the first time ever he’d been seriously ill. 

Then she watched as her mother slowly spilled away from her for ten months, at first it was the drinking and Cathy could handle clearing the empty beer bottles from the living room, but then her mother wasn’t buying groceries or going to work and her co workers called in a welfare check on the family. And Cathy was quickly removed from the home as her mother was off to rehab, but it wasn’t smooth sailing from there. It was supposed to be only two months, but that two months slowly turned to five years as every time her mother was released, she went right back to drinking. 

So Cathy celebrated five birthdays alone in foster homes with people who could care less other than getting a check from the state, and she was slowly becoming too old for people so her social work thought it was time for her to be placed in a group home. Though Cathy was convinced she’d never end up one, hearing horror stories from her older foster siblings that you’re more likely to be abused or assaulted, but she found out that she was going to be placed in a group home with only girls. But that didn’t help her feelings as she lugged her duffle bag behind her, trailing behind her social worker as they headed up the steps of the porch. 

To be fair it was a nice home, two stories with a wrap around porch, it seemed… stable as far as Cathy could see. Something she hadn’t had in a long time as a lady probably in her forties or fifties opened the screen door, a pleasant smile on her face. “Good morning to you both, come on inside.” She greeted them and Cathy noted the warmth in her voice, something she hadn’t heard in a long time as Melissa, her social worker , stepped into the home, first entering a foyer. A set of stairs descended to the second floor as Cathy craned her neck to meet eyes with a young girl, probably a year or two younger than Cathy. 

The girl had her lips in a scowl with her arms crossed as if telling Cathy she was invading her space, her long brown hair highlighted with bits of bright pink hair dye. Cathy didn’t know what to think as she maintained eye contact with the girl for a moment as the lady spoke. “I’m Helen, and up there is Kat. You’ll be meeting some of the other girls, but they'll all be returning from school in about ten minutes.” Helen explained as Cathy pondered that for a moment, why wasn’t Kat in school with the rest of the girls in the home. 

She didn’t question it as Helen led them towards the kitchen and she offered them each a cup of tea as Melissa spoke up, stating she’d have to get going since she had a hearing to get to in an hour. She wished Cathy luck and told her to call her if she needed anything and then her one life line was gone. Cathy did take Helen up on the tea as she sat at one of the bar stools in the fairly sized kitchen as Helen stood across from her. “Catherine correct?” Helen asks as she places a mug of tea in front of Cathy. 

“Yes, um is it okay if I go by Cathy?” Cathy asked timidly. 

“Of course, so Cathy tell me, how old are you?” Helen smiles as Cathy thought she must at least know how she is but didn’t want to be snippy or make a comment that could land her in trouble on the first day. “Fifteen.” Cathy replies as she took a sip from her tea, while Helen nodded her head slightly. 

“Perfect, you’ll be sharing a room with Maggie. She's very excited to meet you, she’s only a year older than you and I think you'll get along.” Helen explains and it was Cathy’s turn to nod her head in understanding as the screen door creaked open and a flood of voices entered the home. “Helen we’re home!” a voice bloomed over the others and Helen just chuckled as she poked her head out to the hall. 

“In here Catalina, I’d like you all to come meet someone.” Helen says and Cathy’s heart dropped to her stomach, she had no idea how many girls she would be meeting, but they were all about to be her housemates after all. First to enter the kitchen was a tall tan girl, her hair tied back in a bun, she seemed a lot more welcoming Kat did honestly. “Hey, you must be our new fibling! I’m Catalina.” the girl spoke and Cathy smiled at her timidly. 

“I’m Cathy.” Cathy replied, her voice cracking and she felt completely ridiculous to be embarrassing herself in front of the girls. “Nice name, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Catalina added as she headed further into the kitchen, stopping at the fridge as another girl trailed behind her, passing Cathy without saying a word, to be fair Cathy wasn’t sure if she had noticed her. The girl was younger than Cathy, probably around the same age as Kat if she was going to guess. She was as tan as Catalina but had blue tipped hair. Catalina shut the fridge and looked down at the girl, “Maria it’s impolite to not greet new filbings.”

The young girl turned and jumped in surprise as she saw Cathy. “Oh goodness, I’m sorry I didn’t see you! My name is Maria! What’s yours? How old are you? Do you like fish?” Apparently she was quite the talkative one too as Cathy chuckled, feeling even more relieved. 

“I’m Cathy. I’m fifteen and fish are cool.” Cathy replies. 

“Perfect, so Bessie and I have a fish in our room, his name is Gilbert, you’ll need to come and meet him.” Maria explains which made Cathy giggle as another girl bolted her way into the kitchen. 

“You!” she exclaims as she spotted Cathy and pointed to her. 

“Me?” Cathy asks, pointing to herself. 

“Maggie please use your words.” Helen chuckles as the tall brunette girl facing Cathy with a look of pure excitement. 

“You’re my roomie!” Maggie finally spoke as Cathy smiled, relieved to find that she was going to be sharing a room with the girl. 

“Could you show Cathy the room?” Helen asks, “And find Anna and Bessie.” Maggie waved Cathy over to her room and Cathy lifted her bag over her shoulder as Maggie looked back at Helen before stating, “Oh yeah, Anna is setting fireworks off in the driveway and Bessie is holding the matches.” 

“Not again.” Helen sighs as she leaves the kitchen and heads out the front door to find Anna and Bessie, Cathy assumed as Maggie let Cathy up the stairs. Kat was no longer staring at her from the top of the stairs as they passed a number of doors as Maggie spoke, “So that’s Maria and Bessie’s room, then next door is Anne and Catalina, that’s a bathroom, then it’s mine and your’s room, Jane’s room is next to the other bathroom and the last door on the right is Anna and Kat’s room.” 

Cathy nodded her head as they passed the rooms and Maggie opened the door to their joint room, she was already noting how open the room felt. The curtains were open to the two windows in the room, letting in lots of sunlight as the walls were painted a light blue, keeping the room bright. Cathy liked the look of the room already since it seemed homey, something she hadn’t felt in a long time. The one bed had creme colored sheets on it, with some pillows surrounding the headboard. Photos were set up on the wall behind it with a set of books on a nightstand. 

The other bed had simple greenish sheets covering it with a few pillows as well, Cathy assumed that was her side since it was bare and the other side seemed lived in. “That’s your bed and the dresser beside it, is yours.” Maggie says as Cathy thanked her as she set her bag on the bed and began to unpack as Maggie perched herself on her own bed. There was a comfortable silence over the room for a few minutes before Cathy spoke up and asked, “So tell me about the other girls, I met Catalina and Maria, but not everyone else.” 

“Well let’s see there’s Bessie, she’s the baby of the family-” Maggie started as Cathy cut her off. 

“Family?” She questioned as she glanced over at Maggie who nodded in reply. 

“Helen treats us all like we’re her daughter, whatever we want or need, she’ll have it here for us.” Maggie replies as she continues to explain everyone, “Then there’s Anna, she’s hilarious, and she loves a good prank or too. Jane’s the only one with her own room right now, which is probably a good thing.” 

“What do you mean? Sorry I don’t mean to keep interrupting.” Cathy says, starting to feel bad for cutting off Maggie while she spoke. 

“She’s not exactly the nicest, like she’ll snap at you for looking at her. But she does have her nice days, just don’t catch her on the bad ones. Then there’s Kat, she’s okay for the most part, she got in trouble at school last week and got suspended for a week, I still don’t know what she did. Then there’s Anne, she's alright, she’s been here almost a year but she’s never talked.” 

“What about you, how long have you been here?” Cathy asks as she sits on her own bed, looking over at Maggie. “It’ll be two years this week, I’m grateful to have something as stable as this.” Maggie responds, and her answer shocked Cathy a bit, the longest she’d been in a home was three months, she was always bouncing around. It made her a bit more relieved to know that Maggie had been there for a long period of time, that it was something stable. That it was somewhere where she could breathe and not have to worry about having to leave again. 

Maggie leaned her ear up, as Helen called up for her to help prepare dinner, which made the older girl smile slightly. “Cooking is one of my favorite things to do so I always help with it. You can come with you’d like Helen and I can always use an extra set of hands.” Maggie says as she stands up and looks over at Cathy. 

“I’d love to.” Cathy nods which caused Maggie to smile once again. 

“Great.” Maggie replies as she heads towards the door as a question finds its way into Cathy’s mind and she figured it was a good time to ask Maggie. “Before we go downstairs, what’s a fibling?” Cathy asks as Maggie looks back at her. 

“Oh it’s a little nickname Catalina has for all of us, since we all live together and are basically are a family, we’re fiblings, a combo of foster and siblings.” Maggie explains and the term brought a smile to Cathy’s face, maybe she shouldn’t been so happy with being an only child now that she has eight fiblings to call her own.


	2. Chapter 2

Cathy trailed behind Maggie down the hallway, her new roommate keeping a quick pace as they headed downstairs. The kitchen looked a bit different than Cathy had remembered from earlier, now smelling like chicken baking and a number of bowls placed on the island as Helen now wore an apron. “Ah Maggie, I see you’ve brought help.” Helen beams as she saw both the girls, and Cathy was grateful for how welcoming her new foster mother was, like she actually was happy to see them. 

“It seemed like fun.” Cathy replies as she and Maggie began to peel potatoes and another girl entered the kitchen, someone that Cathy hadn’t met yet. The girl had dark raven curls, tied back in braids, a set of glasses perched on her nose as she looked surprised to see someone new in the kitchen. “Annie dear, this is Cathy.” Helen says as Cathy’s brain went into overdrive since she was trying to remember who Annie was. It clicked that it was Anne, the one that didn’t talk. And Cathy soon figured that she was deaf since she seemed to respond with her eyes to what Helen says as Cathy mouthed hi to Anne, wanting to try a different form of communication as Anne smiled back at her slightly before slipping out of the room. 

“Well I think Anne likes you, she never smiles at anyone, like ever.” Maggie whispers to Cathy who smiles slightly. She honestly wanted to get to know everyone in a deeper way, but felt that it’d be a little difficult to get to know Anne since she didn’t talk after all. The girls continued to help prepare the dinner as Anne set the table in the neighboring dining room. Helen was soon calling for the girls that dinner was ready and Maggie led Cathy into the dining room, they sat next to each other as more girls filtered into the dining room. First was Catalina, sitting across from Maggie as a girl with long silvery blonde hair entered the dining room, setting herself furthest away from everyone. 

“That’s Jane.” Maggie whispers to Cathy, seemingly reading her mind as Cathy’s eyes dart away from the new girl, not sure if she should give a greeting to her since Jane had yet to acknowledge her existence. Maria arrived a bit later, smiling eagerly when she saw Cathy, “You still need to meet Gilbert!” the younger girl exclaims, making Cathy chuckle at her notation. 

“I’ll come and meet him after dinner.” Cathy says, taking up the girl’s offer to meet the resident fish as Maria adds, “You won’t be disappointed.” Maria then took her seat beside Catalina, already trying to take a roll from the basket in the center of the table as a girl with palish skin and some of the prettiest curls Cathy’s ever seen ran and knocked the roll right out of Maria’s hand. “Bessie!” Maria shouts, and Cathy racked her brain once again for who Bessie was and she remembered Maggie ratting her and another girl out for setting off fireworks? 

Cathy was confused at her own thought as she looked at the girl across from her, she was probably younger than Maria, but had that look in her eye that sat, I will light something on fire, and Cathy admired that. “What?” Bessie replies, almost mocking Maria with a smirk as another girl came chuckling into the dining room.

“Ah new girl!” She states as she spots Cathy at the table. The girl was taller than Cathy by a couple of inches and had dark olive skin, her hair cut short. “I’m Anna, pleasure to meet.” 

“Cathy.” Cathy replies as Anna nods and goes to sit beside Bessie as Kat filtered into the room last, quietly finding an empty seat among the other girls as they began to eat their dinner. There was a comfortable conversation around the table, with so many girls, there was a lot to talk about. Dinner soon ended, each girl somehow assisting in the clean up as Maria eagerly came up to Cathy, tugging Bessie behind her. “Please meet Gilbert now.” the girl begs, making Cathy chuckle once again. 

“Let’s go meet Gilbert.” Cathy nods, as Maria and Bessie high five and basically drag poor Cathy up the steps and towards their room. The girls obviously have a knack for decorating since their door had painted letters of their first names hung as well as some of those glow in the dark stars. Bessie sat herself down on what Cathy figures was her own bed as Maria led the older girl towards a desk near their one window. The duo had a fairly big tank sitting on the desk and Cathy leaned down to see what kind of fish they had. 

It was a betta fish that was aqua blue with white speckles along it’s fins as Cathy observed the girls had the tank decorated with planets and a fish bubbles. “Well I’d say Gilbert’s living the dream.” Cathy remarks which earns a hug grin from Maria and a celebratory dance from Bessie. Cathy giggles at the girls’ excitement as they began to tell and show her a million different things, attempting to talk over one another. 

Cathy guessed they were being too loud for some people as their bedroom door was wrenched open and the one Cathy remembered being Jane, peered into the room. “For the love of god, do you two ever just shut up? I mean seriously. Just shut up, this is why your room is so far down the hall, so that no one can hear you two.” Jane states, and Cathy was speechless at how nasty she was to the two girls and the younger girls’ eyes drop to the floor, silenced by Jane’s words as Jane slammed the door shut. 

She wasn’t sure what to do as Maria recoils back to her own bed, as Cathy glances between the two girls. “Could you get Catalina?” Maria asks softly and Cathy nods her head, going to exit the room as Bessie adds, “Anna too?” 

“Of course, I’ll be back.” Cathy replies as she went to her own room, hoping that Maggie was in it, since she had no clue where to find Catalina or Anna. She looks into her own room, finding Maggie reading a book on her bed as Cathy began to speak, “So uh Magige do you have any idea where Catalina and Anna are?” Maggie sat up from her bed and raises an eyebrow, as she places her book down on the bed. 

“What happened?” Maggie questions as she walks over to Cathy, leading her to find Catalina and Anna.

“Well Jane didn’t have nice words to say to Maria and Bessie.” Cathy answers as Maggie sighs heavily before speaking, “She never does.” Soon Maggie was knocking on doors and explaining what was happening, Catalina’s face almost turning red on the spot as Anna went the complete opposite way of Bessie and Maria’s room, and it took Cathy a moment to realize that she was making a beeline towards Jane’s room. Maggie had disappeared from Cathy’s side, and returning with Helen a few moments later as a screaming match broke out between Jane and Anna while Catalina soon joined. The argument lasted at least ten minutes and drew out all of the residents of the home, and thankfully Helen handled it pretty well as everyone was sent off to bed and Maggie and Cathy returned to their room. 

“Does that happen a lot?” Cathy questions as she saw on her bed, looking over at Maggie who nods her head slightly, “She’s alright sometimes, she just can’t handle people being loud which she shouldn’t expect out of a twelve year old and a thirteen year old.” The two got ready for bed as Cathy thought about everyone she’d met for the day and whole she was going to be living with for a while. 

She wasn’t sure if she wanted to cross Jane, she came after probably the youngest girls in the home, but at the same time she wanted to know why she was mean. Then there are the younger girls, Maria and Bessie, they are the sweetest girls she’s ever met and she wondered how they got there, she wondered how any of them got into this home, after all they needed to be in the system to live here. She wanted to talk to Anne, well talk wasn’t the right word, communicate, yeah she wanted to communicate with Anne. And Kat, why and how was she suspended from school, she was probably the same age as Maria and Bessie and was in trouble. 

But then again she was happy to have a lot of people in her life, some that she felt that she would grow close with, she was just grateful to have these people in her life. It felt right to be a part of this foster family.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi Lovelies, let me know what you think!


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Meeting a new face.

Cathy had settled well into the home, finding her place in the household. It was going quite well as it was soon time for Cathy to attend her first day of school, it was quite nerve wracking. It wasn’t like she hadn’t switched schools a few times before, but now it was like living with the Brady Bunch. To her knowledge Kat was still suspended and was spending her time with Helen giving her some home instruction so she wouldn’t fall behind. 

Cathy also realized that if she wanted to get into the bathroom it would be a problem, since there was seven girls, including herself, trying to get ready for school. “Helen, Anne took her aids out on purpose so she can’t hear me!” Bessie exclaims from the upstairs landing as most of the girls were eating their breakfast of waffles and fruit. “Bes, she does that so she can have the most time.” Catalina replies from downstairs as it earns a chuckle from a few of the other girls. 

A few minutes later Anne came the steps, her hair tied up a ponytail as she went over to Helen, signing something to her, as Helen nods her head, understanding what Anne was telling her. Soon Helen was replying and then turning her attention to the rest of the girls, “Okay who unplugged the charger for Anne’s aids?” Helen asks, as the girls all glanced around at each other as most stole a glance at Jane who just rolled her eyes. 

“They were beeping.” Jane says bluntly with a shrug as the room fell silent aside from the scraping of forks on plates. 

“They don’t beep, we’ve all discussed this.” Helen sighs as she signs something else to Anne before she went back upstairs. Then it was chaos of only five girls getting their bags and everything needed ready for school. “Anne can’t go to school with the aids, or she has to go in the special help class and she hates them.” Maggie whispers to Cathy as they made their way up the driveway towards where the bus would pick them. “Oh I see, do you happen to have a book on sign language?” Cathy asks, as Maggie thought for a moment. 

“I think Helen might, usually Anne doesn’t wear the aids from going to school, they give her headaches.” Maggie explains as the five of them wait for the bus to arrive and about five minutes later a bus grumbles up to their driveway and the girls all collectively found their spots on the bus. Cathy sat beside Maggie as they headed to the school, arriving a bit later as everyone split up, Maggie first taking Cathy to the front office before going to her classes. 

Cathy liked school for the most part and it was just a day of getting introduced and finding all of her classes. It was a little stressful with being in the new space and being the new girl again, something she really didn’t enjoy doing. The bus ride home was alright as far as she was concerned as everyone that she lived with was having quiet conversations among each other, something that wasn’t too normal in the house. The walk down the driveway was filled with conversation as Maria and Bessie raced each other down the driveway. Maggie was explaining where to find the gym to Cathy for the fifth time because she insisted she couldn’t quite explain it well enough in her opinion.

Everyone went in different directions once they entered the house, Cathy first embarking towards the kitchen, finding both Anne and Helen inside. Anne had a book set in front of her along with a notebook and some pens while Helen must have been starting dinner for that evening. “Hi Helen.” Cathy says as she sat herself across from Anne who didn’t notice Cathy yet as she noticed that she still didn’t have her aids in. Cathy cautiously leaned forward and tapped Anne on the shoulder who jolted in reaction, looking at Cathy with wide eyes. It took her a moment to realize it was Cathy and a smile crept onto Anne’s face as she waved at Cathy who waved in return.   
“Hi Cathy, how was your first day of school?” Helen asks. 

“It went well, I also have a question.” Cathy replies as Anne returns to her work, seeing that it wasn’t a conversation she couldn’t be a part of. “That’s good, and ask away.” Helen answers. 

“Do you happen to have a book on sign language, I was going to stop in the library today to find one, but I honestly couldn’t find the library in the school, I really want to be able to talk with Anne when she doesn’t have her hearing aids in.” Cathy explains, as Helen nods her head in reply, stepping out of the kitchen and going down the hall to return with a book a few moments later. 

“This is a common word and phrase book of ASL, Anne is fluent in it, when I was first learning, I would either write the word and show her the picture of the sign in the book and she does them slowly to help you learn them. It’s nice seeing you take an interest, the other girls just write her notes to talk with her.” Helen says as Cathy noticed Anne glancing over to the two of them, trying to read Helen’s lips as well as the title of the book. 

“Could you ask her if she’d be willing to help me learn?” Cathy asks. 

“Of course.” Helen replies as she gently taps a space in front of Anne, clearly in her eye sight range as Anne looks up at her as Helen signs something to her. Anne’s face slowly lit up as she replies to Helen who smiles back at her and they continue with their conversation as Anne looks over at Cathy with a smile. 

“She would love to, maybe after dinner?” Helen suggests, speaking for Anne. 

“Could you show me how to say yes?” Cathy asks, as Helen nods and demonstrates the sign to Cathy who attempts to do such, which made Anne smile even bigger and nod her head. Cathy grins as she took the book upstairs to page through the book, trying to find some words and phrases she’d like to learn that day. Cathy was laying on her bed, using sticky notes to bookmark certain words as Maggie stuck her head into their room, stating, “Time for dinner.” 

Cathy made her way down the steps, finding her seat at the table as most the other girls were arriving and starting short conversations with each other. But Cathy was mostly distracted from the meal, she was just ready to learn about sign language, she was just ready to start being able to communicate with Anne. But she did have to help clean from dinner and soon as she looking into Anne and Catalina’s shared room, Anne sitting on her floor surrounded by notebooks and highlighters as Cathy carefully steps around them, setting herself beside Anne who glanced up at her and smiles.   
Cathy pulls out her own notebook, so that they had a way to also communicate as Cathy was still learning the language and they wouldn’t get confused at what the other meant. Cathy opens the book as she finds the first page of words she wanted to learn from, finding the signing term for ‘How are you’ and Anne smiles as her eyes scan the page and she taps the word how and slowly makes a motion before tapping the word again. Cathy assumed that Anne was intending she was signing for the how part of the phrase and slowly the made it through part of the phrase as Anne nods her head excitedly, swiping her pointer finger across the whole phrase, which allows Cathy to try out the whole sign and Anne claps slightly. 

They slowly continue through the first few pages of the book, Cathy grateful that she was understanding the terms and that Anne was so willing to help. Soon Bessie came bursting into the room, “Cathy, Cathy, Cathy! What’s your favorite color, Maria and I making bracelets like this,” Bessie informs her as she shows off a pink and blue bracelet made from rubber bands, “And we’re making one for everyone.” 

“Hmm they look really nice Bessie, I think I’ll take a blue and silver one.” Cathy replies, “Do you know what color Anne wants for her’s?” 

Bessie timidly looks over at Anne who looks down towards her lap as she realized that her name was brought up. “I-I don’t know how to ask without a notebook.” Bessie answers as she bit her lip slightly, looking between both Cathy and Anne. 

“I’ve been learning and there’s no time like the present to learn, come sit.” Cathy replies as she pats the spot beside her as Bessie plops herself in the seat and looks towards the book as Cathy flips through the pages, trying to find the sign for colors. Anne was also glancing in, looking confused as to what Cathy was trying to find as Cathy finally found the term, looking up at Anne.

She first gently tugs on the bracelet that Bessie was wearing on her wrist, repeating the action a few times so that Anne was aware that she knew that she was talking about the bracelet as Anne nods her head a bit as Cathy slowly attempts to sign the word for ‘color’ a few times as Anne slowly started to understand and she nods her head as she signs something in reply, the same term over a few times. Cathy glances down the book, figuring out it meant green and she showed it to Anne who nods her head rapidly. “So she wants green for sure, do you want to try signing it to her?” Cathy asks since Bessie was watching them so closely and the younger girl nods her head rapidly. Slowly Cathy showed Bessie how to say green in sign and she was able to say it in reply to Anne who smiled brightly. 

Anne also added black to the second color as Bessie was so excited to be talking with Anne was she ran to go tell Maria and so that they were able to create the bracelets for both of the older girls. Soon Anne and Cathy’s improv sign language lesson was over, as Anne was going to be getting some school work done and Cathy went downstairs to talk with Helen. She found their caretaker at the dining table, with a mug of tea. 

“Hey Cathy, how was your little lesson with Anne?” Helen asks, remembering the conversation from earlier, it was something that was now catching Cathy off guard. That Helen always remembers what the girls were planning on doing or things they’d talked about earlier, it was something her former foster parents really never did. “It was really good, I even showed a little something to Bessie.” Cathy states. 

“Aw, that’s amazing. I see Bessie being interested in the language but she’s quite shy about trying it, she’s worried she’ll say the wrong thing to Anne.” Helen explains as Cathy nods, stepping into the joint kitchen, getting herself a mug of tea prepared as Helen follows behind her.   
“It was sweet seeing her use the words for the first time and it seemed to have made Anne really happy that Bessie was trying.” Cathy adds as Helen settled at one of the bar stools in the kitchen, listening to her newest child’s words with a grin. 

“That’s wonderful, I tried to get the girls to learn the language but Anne was really institant on just using pen and paper at home. But I think it would be amazing to try to get everyone on board as far as trying.” Helen answers as Cathy sits beside her once her tea was finished, they both quietly took sips from their tea as Helen’s cell phone began to buzz on one of the neighboring counters. 

“One second dear, I should see who this is.” Helen says as she pats Cathy on the shoulder and goes to answer the phone. She had the conversation for a few minutes as Cathy tried to not listen too much into the conversation as her caretaker spoke with whoever it was on the other end. The phone call ended a few minutes later as Helen looks over at Cathy. “We’ll have to continue our chat in a bit dear, we’re going to have an emergency placement coming in about an hour, we’ll need to get the spare bed ready in Jane’s room.” Helen explains as she heads upstairs and Cathy follows behind a bit later as she goes into her’s and Maggie’s room. 

“What’s going on? I heard Helen coming upstairs and Jane is pissed about it.” Maggie states, as she was lounged out on her bed. 

“There’s an emergency placement coming.” Cathy replies. 

“And that poor girl is going to be stuck with Jane… as a roommate?” Maggie questions as Cathy nods her head, making Maggie sigh. “That poor girl.” Maggie adds once again as Cathy settled onto her bed, as the hour slowly ticked by and it was close to ten as most of the other girls were due to be asleep while Jane was moving stuff around her room, annoyed that she had to be sharing again. But Cathy couldn’t fall asleep, if it was an emergency placement, something must’ve gone really wrong that the new person would need to arrive especially as late as it was. 

Cathy was listening for a car while Maggie slept in her bed as she heard the sound of gravel being moved and she quietly snuck out of bed and went towards the landing at the top of stairs to see the newest girl, where she found Kat sitting at the top of stairs.Kat noticed Cathy and neither of them spoke as Helen welcomed the girl and her case worker inside. “Hello come in, come in.” Helen greets as the two enter, the girl carrying a small bag that most kids in the system travel with as Helen asks, “What’s your name dear?” 

The girl looked up at Helen slightly before replying softly that Cathy could almost not hear, “Joan.”


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane begins to loosen up.

Cathy’s sleep was restless the entire night as she heard the echoing steps of a pissed off Jane going up and down the hall no matter how many times Helen tells her to go to bed. And she assumed that she wasn’t the only one who was awake, meanwhile Maggie slept like a rock and nothing was going to wake her from her slumber. The sixteen year old sighed as she sat up in her bed, half tempted to go out into the hallway and demand that Jane stop, but then again she was in no mood to fight with Jane at three in the morning. She found herself at her desk, scribbling down her thoughts about the day in her notebook. 

It’s been her escape since being put into the system, a way to relax and control her thoughts and she must’ve fallen asleep at her desk as Maggie was tapping her on her shoulder, attempting to wake her up. “Cathy seriously? I thought you were in bed when I fell asleep.” Maggie states, who was already dressed and ready for school that Friday. 

“I couldn’t fall asleep with all of Jane’s stomping.” Cathy yawns, with an eye roll as she got up from her desk and heads towards her dresser, getting herself ready for the day while Maggie ended up in the bathroom, and soon they were both down at breakfast, Cathy noting who was there and who wasn’t. First she saw Anne who did have aids on, but now Bessie and Maria were using some of the basic signs they’d learned to speak with Anne and it made Cathy quite happy to see them try. 

More members of the household fitled into the kitchen, the last being an annoyed Jane who glanced around the room, eyeing up all the girls before settling on Cathy and making a bee line for her. “Carter.” She states and Cathy looked up at her completely confused, with a ‘are you serious’ face as if Cathy hadn’t been living there for over two weeks and Jane hadn’t had the time to learn her name yet. Hell Cathy had to learn nine names in the span of basically one day and it wasn’t like there were new girls showing up every day. 

“Her name’s Cathy.” Bessie informs, inserting herself into the conversation as Jane narrowed her glance at the twelve year old. “Bite me,” Jane snaps as she looks back to Cathy, “Okay what will it take for you to trade rooms with me? I’m willing to do anything.” 

“What? Why?” Cathy questions, “Joan just moved in last night and it’s not my place to decide who also rooms with Maggie.” Cathy shares a glance with Maggie who had a bit of a pissed off face on and Cathy knew that nothing good was going to come from this. “She won’t stop fucking crying.” Jane sighs. 

“Swear jar.” Bessie added, as Anna leaned in front of Bessie, intending to Jane that she wasn’t going to be making a comment back or there’d be a fight right there and now. “And I want to have some decent sleep.” Jane says as ignored the comment being made from Bessie as Cathy just simply rolled her eyes, it was far too early to be dealing with Jane’s bullshit. “No.” Cathy replied, as she leaned back in her chair and glanced up at Jane. It looked like a vein was about to pop on Jane’s forehead as the girl made a remark under her breath and stomped out of the dining room. 

“Damn no one’s ever done that before.” Kat stated as Cathy looked over at her and she gave her a reassuring smile as Maria and Bessie just looked shocked. “All we had to do was say no!” Bessie exclaimed in surprise.   
“Don’t you two go trying that.” Catalina informs as it was time for them to head out to the bus stop, Joan wouldn’t be attending school with the girls for the first few days, depending on how she was handling the move into the house. Something told Cathy it wasn’t going to be going quite well for her since she was sharing a room with the house bitch. 

The school day ended and was about five paces ahead of the rest of the girls, and didn’t seem like anything good was coming to come from it. Jane instantly went up to her room, well now her’s and Joan’s room, since there was no way she was going to get out of it. She entered the room and found Joan exactly where she’d left her that morning, on her bed beside the window that overlooked the backyard, just staring into the backyard. It hadn’t seemed like Joan had moved at all that day and Jane looked at her confused. 

“Have you been downstairs yet?” Jane asked and Joan just simply shook her head no. 

“Have you eaten anything yet today?” was her follow up question and she received another head shake as Jane took a step closer to the girl as she wiped a tear off her face with the sleeve of her shirt, she’d seriously still been crying. Part of Jane didn’t really care as to why she was crying, hell everyone in this house cried so much, she was numb to it, but part of her knew that this was all new to Joan and she wanted to sort of just talk to her. “Do you want me to get you a snack fro-” 

“Listen Jane, I know you hate me. I heard you ask Cathy or whatever her name is to switch rooms with you this morning. I’m sorry that I’m not cut out enough to share a room with you but do me a favor and leave me the fuck alone.” Joan snaps as she only looked at Jane for a moment and Jane was speechless, hell not a lot of people had ever spoken to her like that before in her life. Well there had been a lot of people giving her snarky comments back after she’d made one first, but Joan’s words were filled with anger and hatred, that Jane had felt in herself before. 

It was the most uncomfortable feeling for her, it didn’t settle in her well. Jane just wordlessly left her room and wandered downstairs, finding Cathy, Anne and Bessie in a circle in the living room with a number of books scattered around them. Cathy first glanced up at Jane and both Anne and Bessie’s eyes followed and their eyes dropped back down to the books. “Look Cathy I’m sorry about this morning and I really hope we can get past this and become friends.” Jane stated as Cathy tried to restrict making a face before replying, “I accept your apology and I hope we can be friends as well.” 

Jane simply nodded her head and left the room as the three remaining girls shared a shocked response to everything that had happened. “Holy shit.” Bessie stated as Anne’s shocked expression grew larger and she smacked Bessie’s shoulder before signing ‘language’ to her. Bessie turned bright red as she signed back that she was sorry to Anne. “What’s with your potty mouth all of sudden?” Cathy asked. 

“She’s never said that before.” Bessie replied. 

“Said what?” Cathy questioned. 

“She’s never said sorry.” Bessie answered and Cathy only slightly chuckled. 

“Really?” Cathy half chuckles as Bessie looks at her with wide eyes and nods her head slightly. 

“Or that she wants to be friends with someone, that’s the nicest thing she’s said to something one other than Helen.” Bessie informs which caused Cathy to burst into laughter, making the other two giggle in response, it was a weird situation to be in but Cathy could feel there was some good in Jane, afterall you can’t be completely heartless, or at least she hopes you can’t be, especially Jane.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cathy is getting to know more of her housemates, finding happiness in her new home.

A few days had passed since Joan had joined the household and she really hadn’t come out of her room since then. And since then, Jane had been downstairs in the living room quite a lot more, either reading or doing her homework. She was much more quiet these days, it was like some threatened the part she played and now she was playing it cool. Cathy had observed that Jane would always take a plate upstairs after dinner, no doubt giving it to Joan and then bringing an empty plate down after most of the girls had gone to bed. 

Thankfully Saturday had rolled around and the collective household of ten were all doing their own things. Bessie and Maria were out in the back field that went into a forest with a stream, looking for tadpoles and other aquatic life. They always seemed to love anything that could swim as far as Cathy could tell. Catalina was busy gardening with Helen, both wearing thick gloves and hats to protect them from the sun as they worked. 

Anna was busy collecting firewood for the fire she insisted on having that night, so that the family could have a little cookout and roast marshmallows. Cathy was settled on a lounge chair on the back porch as she read The Republic. It was a peaceful day as Cathy felt the breeze blowing against her book pages. It felt so normal to be living this life, that this felt okay, she was happy here. She was happy for the first time in a very long time, it felt so good. 

She continued her reading for a while as she heard the screen door squeak open as Cathy glanced up to see Joan standing in the doorway. The girl’s hair was tied back into a single braid, her face ghostly pale as she’d been in a room for a few days and not really being outside. Joan’s eyes found Cathy’s and she quickly glanced down so she wouldn’t be caught staring. “I’m Joan.” the girl says softly as Cathy raises her eyes once again. 

“Cathy, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” Cathy replies as Joan nods her head a bit. 

“What are you reading?” Joan asks, as Cathy tilted the book back, showing the title of the novel to Joan, as the girl nodded her head once again. “Do you like reading?” Cathy questions as Joan’s eyes scanned the backyard, stopping on Maria and Bessie as the two wadded through the water, Bessie splashing at Maria a bit before starting a splashing battle between the two. Joan cracked a small smile at the duo as she looked over Cathy, a confused look on her face. “I’m sorry, what did you ask me?” 

“Do you like reading?” Cathy repeats as she gives Joan a gentle smile. 

“A little, I like music better.” Joan replies as Cathy’s smile begins to grow a bit. She recalled something that the family kept downstairs. “Could I show you something?” Cathy asks as Joan nods her head as Cathy bookmarks her novel and leads Joan down to the finished basement that doubled as a lounge since the girls all liked to watch movies down there. Along with the television, beanbags, and couches, there was also a keyboard propped up against the wall. Cathy knew it’d been unused a while since it’d been in the same place since she came to the house. Joan followed behind Cathy cautiously and stopped in her tracks as she saw the keyboard, her eyes lighting up at the sight. 

Cathy got it settled on the floor and found an outlet to pull in the instrument, it lit up right away as Joan moved in front of the keyboard, kneeling as she looked over the controls as Cathy sat beside her. The blonde began to play a few chords and Cathy smiled a bit as Joan began to play the tune to London Bridges are falling down. “My dad bought me one of these for my tenth birthday.” Joan says quietly as she pressed one key down a few times as the device began to work like normal again. 

“I’m guessing you know what happened to me.” Joan breathed as she pulled her hands away from the keyboard, like it had caught fire. “I don’t.” Cathy answers as Joan glances over at her and nods her head a bit. “Do you know what happened to me?” Cathy asks as Joan shakes her head in response. Cathy took a breath as she thought about how she hadn’t told any of the girls what happened to her. “My dad had a heart attack and my mom lost it, so at ten, I was in my first foster home.” Cathy explains as Joan looks over at her in shock. 

“How old are you?” Joan asks. 

“Fifteen now.” Cathy replies. “And you?” 

“Fifteen.” Joan started to play chord again slowly, as she thought for a moment, “My father had a drinking problem, and he killed my mom and tried to do the same to me, but I ran to the neighbors and they called the police and here I am.” 

“My mom had a drinking problem too.” Cathy says, “How long have you been in the system?” 

“How long have I been here?” Joan asks as she gives Cathy a side glance. 

“Four days.” Cathy answers.

“Four days and one night then.” Joan swallows as Cathy scrunches her eyebrows, realizing that what had happened to Joan, had just happened less than a week ago. That the drinking of her father wasn’t a distant memory, but it is fresh in her mind. She felt for her as Joan started to play London Bridge is Falling Down once again, realizing that she’d made it awkward for her and Cathy. 

“I’m not sure if Helen has any sheet music, but we ask about ordering some.” Cathy says as Joan looks up at her hopeful. 

“I’d like that a lot.” Joan nods as Cathy smiles, “Can you tell me about the other girls?” Cathy then thought for a moment, she didn’t fully know the rest of the girls since she’d only grown close to a few in her first week or so living in the house. “Let’s see, there’s Maggie, I share a room with her, she’s really nice and she can help you with literally homework, she’s really smart. She’s sixteen.” 

Joan nods her head as she listens, not playing the keyboard anymore as she echoes, “Maggie.” Clearly trying to remember all of the girls' names as Cathy says them. “Then there’s Bessie, she’s twelve. She’s quite funny and she says the best jokes. Then there’s Maria, she’s thirteen, she’s a sweetheart, and she’s really amazing at drawing and is best friends with Bessie. Then there’s Katherine but I know she prefers to be called Kat, she’s the same age as Maria, I don’t know her as well as the other girls. Anna is sixteen and she’s quite funny as well, she really loves the outdoors and a good prank. Catalina is seventeen, she’s the oldest in the house, I don’t really hang out with her much but she’s really nice. And there’s Anne, she’s completely deaf but she has hearing aids but she doesn’t really wear that at home, but I can help with signs if you wanna learn in the future. She’s sixteen as well.” 

Cathy explained the girls and what they were like as Joan listened carefully, getting to know her housemates as she looked over at Cathy. “You didn’t say anything about Jane.” 

“I don’t know her that well either, but I know she’s sixteen. She doesn’t really get along with the other girls, she thought my name was Carter.” Cathy says as Joan chuckles to herself, which made Cathy laugh a bit as well. The two hung out in the basement for a while as Joan played other pieces from her memory. It was a peaceful Saturday afternoon as no doubt, Maria and Bessie were caught after soaking each other in the creek by Helen and being sent in the house to get changed so they wouldn’t catch a cold. So the peace was quickly distrubed by the two girls running into the house, Helen shouting after them to not get water all over the place. 

Joan ended up going back upstairs to her room after Maria and Bessie went back outside as Cathy went to find her book, as she found Kat reading the book, her bookmark still in the right place as Kat glanced up at her with an apologetic look. “Oh I’m sorry, is this your book? It looked really good.” Kat says. 

“It’s quite good, it’s a bit of a hard read. Is there anything hard to understand?” Cathy asks, smiling a bit since not many people enjoyed reading Plato anymore. 

Kat shook her head as she gently closed the book, handing it back to Cathy who tucked her book under her arm. “I have another copy if you’d like to borrow.” Cathy suggests. 

“Really?” Kat asks. 

“Yeah, it’s up in my room. Come on, we can go get it and we can talk about it once we’re both done reading it.” Cathy replies as Kat follows her upstairs, as Cathy looks through her stack of books, the one she was reading was from the library but it turns out that Catalina had one from an online college course she’d taken and she didn’t want it anymore so Cathy took it off her hands. She gave Kat the copy from Catalina, retrieving the thirteen year old, a bookmark as well so she wouldn’t have to dog ear the book. Kat looked up at Cathy with a grin as she took the book, finding about where she’d been in the other copy, and bookmarking it. 

“Thank you, I’ll return it to you once I’m done.” Kat says, “And I’d love to talk about it once we’re done reading.” 

“Good, good. Let me know how far you get at dinner.” Cathy replies as Kat nods her head before slipping away to her room, Cathy then settling herself by the window as she continues to read her book, wanting to make sure she didn’t take too long to finish the book since Kat seemed excited to talk about. She had a few other books she knew were at the library and she figured that she could get them after they finished this book since Kat seemed to like reading as much as her. It was crazy how little knew she knew about Kat, especially since she was the first girl that she saw when she moved into the house. 

Hell all she knew that Kat was suspended from school for a week and that was about all she knew about the girl. And she seemed so sweet that Cathy wasn’t even sure of what she could’ve done. She wasn’t going to push it but maybe Maggie knew and luckily her roommate came in about a half hour after Kat had left to her own room. Maggie had been doing some flower pressing on the front steps all day and boy did she forget to wear sunscreen, she looked a lot like a lobster. 

“Ever heard of sunscreen?” Cathy asks as she glances up at Maggie who sighed, already putting aloe on her burnt shoulders. “I honestly didn’t think I was going to burn that easily.” Maggie replies, “I mean I usually don’t.” 

“So what you’re saying is that you usually wear sunscreen.” Cathy replies and Maggie rolls her eyes as Cathy finally adds, “I have a question about Kat.” 

“What about her?” Maggie asks as she sits herself down on her own bed, looking over at Cathy who’s still sitting by the window. “Why did she get suspended?” Cathy questions. 

“Well I don’t think it’s that bad at all, I mean he had it coming.” Maggie shrugs as Cathy looks at her confused, before Maggie continues, “Oh I forgot to say it. Some asshole grabbed her and she socked him in the nose and she got suspended for a week and nothing happened to the boy. She’s really sweet trust me, but she went into a fight or flight situation.” Maggie explains as it finally made sense to Cathy. There was no way that Kat’s kindness was just a show, she was just defending herself. 

“Well that’s messed up that he didn’t get punished.” Cathy states, shutting her book and crossing her arms. 

“She broke his nose, and Catalina gave her twenty bucks. Helen is taking it to the school board and she didn’t even ground Kat since she was protecting herself.” 

“Wow that’s crazy, but damn I’m glad that Kat broke his nose.” Cathy says. 

“Me too, I wish I had seen it. Well then again I would’ve kicked his ass, no one hurts my sisters.” Maggie informs her. 

“Sisters?” Cathy asks, not being aware that Maggie had any sisters. 

“Cath, if you live in this house, you have a whole band of sisters behind you and I, myself, personally, will do anything to protect my sisters.” Maggie explains as a smile grew on Cathy’s face, having never had a sister before. 

“That’s really good to know.” Cathy smiles. 

“Is there someone’s ass I need to kick?” Maggie asks, raising an eyebrow. 

“No, not at all. It’s just good to have sisters.” Cathy grins as she settles herself back to reading her book. She was an only child for her whole life and her previous foster siblings never felt like family but these girls felt like it to her as she smiles to herself. She continued to read her book, hoping to be done by next week so that she and Kat could talk about sooner rather than later and maybe start a new book.

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed and comment which character you're excited to meet next!


End file.
